Amazing lie pushed out all over the world this morning by the premier propaganda arm of the British Government, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp liberated by British troops. According to the BBC this morning, an estimated 50,000 prisoners died there. (That would be from disease, starvation, and execution.) The BBC every half hour stated that "images of piles of bodies and starving inmates were the first evidence to reach the Wet of the horrors of the Holocaust."
No, they were NOT 'the first evidence to reach the West." Not by a long shot. The Allied armies in the West overran concentration camps in Germany in 1945, during the last weeks of the war. But information about what the Germans were doing was known as soon as the organized mass murder began.
In June 1941 Nazi Germany and its fascist allies Italy, Romania, and Hungary (plus Finland) invaded the Soviet Union. There were three extermination units, called Einsatzgruppen, one assigned to each of the invading German army groups. Their task was to follow in the wake of these armies and round up and execute Jews and Communist Party officials. In a few months they managed to murder hundreds of thousands of people. Of course word of this reached the Soviet authorities, who at that point were allied with Britain against Germany. (In December 1941 the U.S. joined the Soviets and British after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and Germany declared war on the U.S.) So this was no secret. [1]
All during the war there was a stream of intelligence report and testimony of refugees, escapees, and spies as to the Nazi extermination program in the camps. On a number of occasions in 1944, various Jewish representatives beseeched the U.S. government to bomb the railroad lines to Auschwitz to interrupt the shipment of Jews from all over Europe into this death camp. The U.S. Army Air Force always refused. [2]
It has been a common theme of Western propaganda that the Allies only found out about the Holocaust at nearly the end of the war. But the actual historical record refutes this completely. Of course the sort of propagandists who work for media companies don't give a damn about actual facts.
Is it really possible that the BBC is so abysmally ignorant of history, or has such a feckless research
research department, that they don't know this? No, it isn't.
This is a political lie to protect the reputations of Britain and the U.S. In a very real sense, these nations were accomplices to the Holocaust. Especially the U.S., which barred Jews fleeing the Nazis from entering the U.S. (At least Britain took in some Jewish children, only insisting that their parents stay behind to be persecuted and ultimately murdered by the Germans and their fascist fellow travelers.)
The BBC isn't the only "Western" "news" organization that lies about the Holocaust. A commemoration of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, the most notorious of the archipelago of scores of Nazi concentration camps, was recently staged. This political ritual received major promotion in the U.S. corporate media system. A very key fact went completely unmentioned in the broadcast propaganda- namely which army liberated the camp! Of course it was the Red Army. Auschwitz was one of six mass exterminations camps set up to commit mass murder on an industrial scale. All six were set up on conquered Polish territory, apparently to keep them out of sight of the German populace. (The German people were okay with camps on German soil that only murdered thousands or tens of thousands of people.) It was the Red Army that overran Poland from the East, of course, in the drive to Berlin. By going on and on about the liberation while omitting the actual liberators, the clear impression was left that it was the U.S. that did the liberating. This is an example of lying by omission, a common tactic by U.S. establishment propaganda organs.
The BBC has a "history" program they call "Witness." Many of the episodes consist of rehasing anti-Soviet Cold War themes. While not factually incorrect for the most part, it is beating a dead horse. What purpose is served other than ideological indoctrination?
You'd think that now that the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore, has ceased to exist for almost thirty years, they could let it go. But no.
Another pet peeve of the BBC is the East German Stasi, or secret police. Since East Germany ceased to exist even before the Soviet Union expired, and in any event was a small and not very consequential country, one might wonder about the motive here too. Did the Stasi even kill a few hundred people throughout its existence? On the other hand, the BBC largely ignores the mass murdering death squad regimes created by its U.S. masters, like the one in Guatemala (250,000 murdered), Iran after they installed the Shah as dictator in 1953 (another 250,000), Chile (at least 3,000 plus more outside its borders), or Argentina, encouraged by the U.S., which murdered 30,000 defenseless citizens. And there are others. In fact, right now the Colombian regime is busy murdering political activists and labor organizers. Since the FARC's latest surrender, they have assassinated almost 1,000 people, including many candidates for office. Not a word of this on the BBC.
Naturally the BBC, reflecting the vile position of the government of which it is a part, supports every U.S. coup, including the one in Honduras engineered by Barack "The Drone Assassin" Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the current ongoing one in Venezuela, just the latest coup attempt there, a criminal campaign that began under Bush the Younger, continued by Obama, and now Donald "Jackass" Trump is carrying the imperialist baton.
Naturally the BBC, reflecting the vile position of the government of which it is a part, supports every U.S. coup, including the one in Honduras engineered by Barack "The Drone Assassin" Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the current ongoing one in Venezuela, just the latest coup attempt there, a criminal campaign that began under Bush the Younger, continued by Obama, and now Donald "Jackass" Trump is carrying the imperialist baton.
Another thing the BBC is loathe to mention is the UK's support for Saudi Arabia's murderous assault on Yemen, which has caused mass starvation and a cholera epidemic in that country. For good measure, the Saudis are bombing the hospitals there, just as Russia and the Assad regime have systematically attacks the health clinics in territory the regime wants to take over. THAT the BBC reports. (As it should, of course.)
When you see such one-sided "coverage," such a clear double standard, and such obsessive trashing of defunct regimes, that's a tipoff that you are witnessing propaganda.
The British ruling class leaves nothing to chance. All key power positions are held by their own kind.
Ridiculous hat, by the way.
1] Einsatzgruppen at Wikipedia
2] A few examples of the absurdity of the BBC's lie: "The Polish government-in-exile in London first reported crimes in the Auschwitz complex to the western public in 1941.[1] Information about tortures inside this camp was published in the same year in New York in a government report from occupied Poland titled The Polish White Book[1] The Auschwitz camp was also noted in The Black Book of Poland a 750-page report published in 1942 in New York by the Ministry of Information of the Polish government-in-exile, describing atrocities committed by Germany in occupied Poland in twenty-two months between the invasion of Poland in September 1939, and the end of June 1941. Both were printed in New York by The Greystone Press and G.P. Putnam's Sons[1][2]
"In 1942, Lieutenant Jan Karski reported to the Polish, British and U.S. governments on the situation in occupied Poland, especially the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto and the general systematic extermination of the Poles and Jews nationally. He did not know about the murder by gas, repeating the common belief at the time that deported Jews were being exterminated with electricity.[3] Karski met with the Polish government-in-exile, including the Prime Minister, Władysław Sikorski, as well as with members of political parties such as the Socialist Party, National Party, Labor Party, People's Party, Jewish Labour Bund and Zionist Party. He also spoke to Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary, and included a detailed statement on what he had seen in Warsaw and in Bełżec. In 1943 in London he met the author and journalist Arthur Koestler. He then traveled to the United States and reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR reacted to Karski's report by inquiring jokingly into animal rights abuses (specifically, horses). His report was a major source of information for the Allies.[4] "Auschwitz Bombing Debate," Wikipedia,
For the historical context in the broader framework of anti-Semitism, see "Foundations of Holocaust: Roosevelt's decision to not bomb Auschwitz," Jerusalem Post, February 28, 2013.
As to not bombing the rail lines, to be fair, given the inaccuracy of high-level bombing in those days, the ease and speed with which rail tracks can be repaired, there was good reason not to target rail lines. As to bombing the camp itself, there were prisoners of war there. However air raids were carried out against some of the factories in the sprawling complex, where slave laborers were often worked to death. See "The United States and the Holocaust: Why Auschwitz Was Not Bombed," Holocaust Encyclopedia of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
No, they were NOT 'the first evidence to reach the West." Not by a long shot. The Allied armies in the West overran concentration camps in Germany in 1945, during the last weeks of the war. But information about what the Germans were doing was known as soon as the organized mass murder began.
In June 1941 Nazi Germany and its fascist allies Italy, Romania, and Hungary (plus Finland) invaded the Soviet Union. There were three extermination units, called Einsatzgruppen, one assigned to each of the invading German army groups. Their task was to follow in the wake of these armies and round up and execute Jews and Communist Party officials. In a few months they managed to murder hundreds of thousands of people. Of course word of this reached the Soviet authorities, who at that point were allied with Britain against Germany. (In December 1941 the U.S. joined the Soviets and British after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and Germany declared war on the U.S.) So this was no secret. [1]
All during the war there was a stream of intelligence report and testimony of refugees, escapees, and spies as to the Nazi extermination program in the camps. On a number of occasions in 1944, various Jewish representatives beseeched the U.S. government to bomb the railroad lines to Auschwitz to interrupt the shipment of Jews from all over Europe into this death camp. The U.S. Army Air Force always refused. [2]
It has been a common theme of Western propaganda that the Allies only found out about the Holocaust at nearly the end of the war. But the actual historical record refutes this completely. Of course the sort of propagandists who work for media companies don't give a damn about actual facts.
Is it really possible that the BBC is so abysmally ignorant of history, or has such a feckless research
research department, that they don't know this? No, it isn't.
This is a political lie to protect the reputations of Britain and the U.S. In a very real sense, these nations were accomplices to the Holocaust. Especially the U.S., which barred Jews fleeing the Nazis from entering the U.S. (At least Britain took in some Jewish children, only insisting that their parents stay behind to be persecuted and ultimately murdered by the Germans and their fascist fellow travelers.)
The BBC isn't the only "Western" "news" organization that lies about the Holocaust. A commemoration of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, the most notorious of the archipelago of scores of Nazi concentration camps, was recently staged. This political ritual received major promotion in the U.S. corporate media system. A very key fact went completely unmentioned in the broadcast propaganda- namely which army liberated the camp! Of course it was the Red Army. Auschwitz was one of six mass exterminations camps set up to commit mass murder on an industrial scale. All six were set up on conquered Polish territory, apparently to keep them out of sight of the German populace. (The German people were okay with camps on German soil that only murdered thousands or tens of thousands of people.) It was the Red Army that overran Poland from the East, of course, in the drive to Berlin. By going on and on about the liberation while omitting the actual liberators, the clear impression was left that it was the U.S. that did the liberating. This is an example of lying by omission, a common tactic by U.S. establishment propaganda organs.
The BBC has a "history" program they call "Witness." Many of the episodes consist of rehasing anti-Soviet Cold War themes. While not factually incorrect for the most part, it is beating a dead horse. What purpose is served other than ideological indoctrination?
You'd think that now that the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore, has ceased to exist for almost thirty years, they could let it go. But no.
Another pet peeve of the BBC is the East German Stasi, or secret police. Since East Germany ceased to exist even before the Soviet Union expired, and in any event was a small and not very consequential country, one might wonder about the motive here too. Did the Stasi even kill a few hundred people throughout its existence? On the other hand, the BBC largely ignores the mass murdering death squad regimes created by its U.S. masters, like the one in Guatemala (250,000 murdered), Iran after they installed the Shah as dictator in 1953 (another 250,000), Chile (at least 3,000 plus more outside its borders), or Argentina, encouraged by the U.S., which murdered 30,000 defenseless citizens. And there are others. In fact, right now the Colombian regime is busy murdering political activists and labor organizers. Since the FARC's latest surrender, they have assassinated almost 1,000 people, including many candidates for office. Not a word of this on the BBC.
Naturally the BBC, reflecting the vile position of the government of which it is a part, supports every U.S. coup, including the one in Honduras engineered by Barack "The Drone Assassin" Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the current ongoing one in Venezuela, just the latest coup attempt there, a criminal campaign that began under Bush the Younger, continued by Obama, and now Donald "Jackass" Trump is carrying the imperialist baton.
Naturally the BBC, reflecting the vile position of the government of which it is a part, supports every U.S. coup, including the one in Honduras engineered by Barack "The Drone Assassin" Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the current ongoing one in Venezuela, just the latest coup attempt there, a criminal campaign that began under Bush the Younger, continued by Obama, and now Donald "Jackass" Trump is carrying the imperialist baton.
Another thing the BBC is loathe to mention is the UK's support for Saudi Arabia's murderous assault on Yemen, which has caused mass starvation and a cholera epidemic in that country. For good measure, the Saudis are bombing the hospitals there, just as Russia and the Assad regime have systematically attacks the health clinics in territory the regime wants to take over. THAT the BBC reports. (As it should, of course.)
When you see such one-sided "coverage," such a clear double standard, and such obsessive trashing of defunct regimes, that's a tipoff that you are witnessing propaganda.
Tony Hall, 16th Director-General of the BBC. According the BBC website, "The Director-General is the Chief Executive Officer of the BBC, its Editor-in-Chief. The DG is the editorial, operational and creative leader of the BBC, with responsibility for a global workforce running services across television, radio and online."
But "Tony" is much MORE than that! He is also "The Right Honourable, The Lord Hall of Birkenhead Life Peerage, CBE," don't you know!
The British ruling class leaves nothing to chance. All key power positions are held by their own kind.
Ridiculous hat, by the way.
1] Einsatzgruppen at Wikipedia
2] A few examples of the absurdity of the BBC's lie: "The Polish government-in-exile in London first reported crimes in the Auschwitz complex to the western public in 1941.[1] Information about tortures inside this camp was published in the same year in New York in a government report from occupied Poland titled The Polish White Book[1] The Auschwitz camp was also noted in The Black Book of Poland a 750-page report published in 1942 in New York by the Ministry of Information of the Polish government-in-exile, describing atrocities committed by Germany in occupied Poland in twenty-two months between the invasion of Poland in September 1939, and the end of June 1941. Both were printed in New York by The Greystone Press and G.P. Putnam's Sons[1][2]
"In 1942, Lieutenant Jan Karski reported to the Polish, British and U.S. governments on the situation in occupied Poland, especially the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto and the general systematic extermination of the Poles and Jews nationally. He did not know about the murder by gas, repeating the common belief at the time that deported Jews were being exterminated with electricity.[3] Karski met with the Polish government-in-exile, including the Prime Minister, Władysław Sikorski, as well as with members of political parties such as the Socialist Party, National Party, Labor Party, People's Party, Jewish Labour Bund and Zionist Party. He also spoke to Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary, and included a detailed statement on what he had seen in Warsaw and in Bełżec. In 1943 in London he met the author and journalist Arthur Koestler. He then traveled to the United States and reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR reacted to Karski's report by inquiring jokingly into animal rights abuses (specifically, horses). His report was a major source of information for the Allies.[4] "Auschwitz Bombing Debate," Wikipedia,
For the historical context in the broader framework of anti-Semitism, see "Foundations of Holocaust: Roosevelt's decision to not bomb Auschwitz," Jerusalem Post, February 28, 2013.
As to not bombing the rail lines, to be fair, given the inaccuracy of high-level bombing in those days, the ease and speed with which rail tracks can be repaired, there was good reason not to target rail lines. As to bombing the camp itself, there were prisoners of war there. However air raids were carried out against some of the factories in the sprawling complex, where slave laborers were often worked to death. See "The United States and the Holocaust: Why Auschwitz Was Not Bombed," Holocaust Encyclopedia of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
